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should i, could i - put a filter on the air vents?

GoAsusGo_
Level 8
should i put a filter on the two air vents? can it be done? should it be done? which way does the air flow.. in or out?
halp! 😄
10,903 Views
30 REPLIES 30

Dcite
Level 7
On the G750 series, along with most other laptops, air enters from the bottom and exits out the back/side where you feel heat coming out.

I can't say anything about adding air filters, better to just have a cleaner room with left dust to begin with 🙂

i vaccum where my computer sits everyday. but its not in a room by itself. i cant live in a closed container lol

Dcite wrote:
On the G750 series, along with most other laptops, air enters from the bottom and exits out the back/side where you feel heat coming out.

I can't say anything about adding air filters, better to just have a cleaner room with left dust to begin with 🙂



actually, i do vacuum my computer, desk & chair everyday. but its not in a closed room. theres always gonna be dust around. i dont live in a sealed box.

GoAsusGo_
Level 8
i rarely hear the fans , or feel any air blowing in or out of the vents.
is there an app that will tell me if/when the fans are blowing?

i tried CUPID HW MONITOR.

Ntwlf
Level 12
Hi GoAsusGo!,
Air filters always restrict air flow to some extent, so any fan needs to have a high enough static pressure to overcome the restriction forced upon it, whether it be a heatsink, radiator, filter or any combination therein.

Laptop fans are quite small (compared to a desktop pc fan) and usually doesn't have much more static pressure than whats needed to draw air into the laptop and push the air through the heatsink and out of the vents. I am aware that some laptops have air filters built in, but, in following some of those laptops on forums they tend to run hot. The solution on the threads, was to remove the factory installed air filters.

In finishing, I suggest an aerosol can or 2 of "compressed air duster". You can usually find them in the PC Supplies section of stores. In using this solution, I recommend spraying air into the exhaust ports first, then spray into the intake ports. As this tends to help dislodge dust better. Do be careful with the straw on the air can, don't push it into any openings anymore than 1/8 of an inch so as to not potentially damage any components inside. Suggested intervals of cleaning would probably be once a week for daily laptop use for the average person. And a one second burst of air at each location (vent) should be sufficient to remove dust. Unless it's really caked with dust (no airflow whatsoever), then this may require disassembling the laptop for thorough cleaning.

Now just in case anyone gets this idea, "I do not recommend using a vacuum cleaner". Do to the extremely high probability of static discharge from the end of the vacuum hose or wand. The static discharge can and will fry electronics. Just a friendly warning.

I hope this helps.

Edit for additional info, this may benefit in certain situations/circumstances.
A possibility for filtering the air coming into the laptop, providing the air enters (intakes) from underneath, and I'm presuming the laptop doesn't get moved (ie...setting it on your lap) as you will see in the construction I suggest. And you could make this one cheaply.

Get a wooden Picture Frame with the same to a little smaller dimension as the laptop, similar to this http://www.amazon.com/DAX-Document-Inches-Rosewood-DAXN3246N1T/dp/B001CDW5SO/ref=sr_1_56?s=furniture.... Also get the "blue" Home HVAC Fiberglass Air Filter, similar to this http://www.amazon.com/Fiberglass-Furnace-Filter-20X25X1-FILTER/dp/B000LNJT9E/ref=sr_1_8?s=home-garde..., as it's the least restrictive I know of.

Remove the hardboard back & glass so that your left with the bare frame. Now place the hardboard back onto the air filter and cut it to the same size and then lay the air filter aside for now. This next part can be a little tricky to explain. Measure in from each edge of the hardboard back by about an 1/2 an inch and draw your lines with a pencil. And then with a box knife, (be careful please), cut along the lines you have drawn and remove the inner hardboard. What you should have left now, is what looks like (sort of) another picture frame. Now lay the air filter you had cut out, into the wooden picture frame (where the glass was) and then lay the hardboard frame (you also have just cut out) on top of that. Now it needs fastened together. I suggest a staple gun http://www.amazon.com/Arrow-T50-Heavy-Duty-Staple/dp/B00002ND61/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430441893&sr... for this task, but you can use small tacks and a hammer as well.
Are you all beginning to see where this is going.

The finishing necessity is elevating the "Picture Frame Air filter" from the surface it rests upon, so that air freely enters from underneath. There's many solutions for this, so here is one. A strip of wood trim to fasten only to "2" opposite sides of the frame, and the wood strip wide enough to extend below the frame raising it up at least an inch from the surface it rests upon, so that air will enter from the other 2 sides and pass up through the filter and then into the laptop vents, in which you place on top of this whole contraption.

This should work quite well because of the large surface area of the filter opposed to the laptop air intake cooling vents.

Ntwlf wrote:
Hi GoAsusGo!,
Air filters always restrict air flow to some extent, so any fan needs to have a high enough static pressure to overcome the restriction forced upon it, whether it be a heatsink, radiator, filter or any combination therein.

Laptop fans are quite small (compared to a desktop pc fan) and usually doesn't have much more static pressure than whats needed to draw air into the laptop and push the air through the heatsink and out of the vents. I am aware that some laptops have air filters built in, but, in following some of those laptops on forums they tend to run hot. The solution on the threads, was to remove the factory installed air filters.

In finishing, I suggest an aerosol can or 2 of "compressed air duster". You can usually find them in the PC Supplies section of stores. In using this solution, I recommend spraying air into the exhaust ports first, then spray into the intake ports. As this tends to help dislodge dust better. Do be careful with the straw on the air can, don't push it into any openings anymore than 1/8 of an inch so as to not potentially damage any components inside. Suggested intervals of cleaning would probably be once a week for daily laptop use for the average person. And a one second burst of air at each location (vent) should be sufficient to remove dust. Unless it's really caked with dust (no airflow whatsoever), then this may require disassembling the laptop for thorough cleaning.

Now just in case anyone gets this idea, "I do not recommend using a vacuum cleaner". Do to the extremely high probability of static discharge from the end of the vacuum hose or wand. The static discharge can and will fry electronics. Just a friendly warning.

I hope this helps.

Edit for additional info, this may benefit in certain situations/circumstances.
A possibility for filtering the air coming into the laptop, providing the air enters (intakes) from underneath, and I'm presuming the laptop doesn't get moved (ie...setting it on your lap) as you will see in the construction I suggest. And you could make this one cheaply.

Get a wooden Picture Frame with the same to a little smaller dimension as the laptop, similar to this http://www.amazon.com/DAX-Document-Inches-Rosewood-DAXN3246N1T/dp/B001CDW5SO/ref=sr_1_56?s=furniture.... Also get the "blue" Home HVAC Fiberglass Air Filter, similar to this http://www.amazon.com/Fiberglass-Furnace-Filter-20X25X1-FILTER/dp/B000LNJT9E/ref=sr_1_8?s=home-garde..., as it's the least restrictive I know of.

Remove the hardboard back & glass so that your left with the bare frame. Now place the hardboard back onto the air filter and cut it to the same size and then lay the air filter aside for now. This next part can be a little tricky to explain. Measure in from each edge of the hardboard back by about an 1/2 an inch and draw your lines with a pencil. And then with a box knife, (be careful please), cut along the lines you have drawn and remove the inner hardboard. What you should have left now, is what looks like (sort of) another picture frame. Now lay the air filter you had cut out, into the wooden picture frame (where the glass was) and then lay the hardboard frame (you also have just cut out) on top of that. Now it needs fastened together. I suggest a staple gun http://www.amazon.com/Arrow-T50-Heavy-Duty-Staple/dp/B00002ND61/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430441893&sr... for this task, but you can use small tacks and a hammer as well.
Are you all beginning to see where this is going.

The finishing necessity is elevating the "Picture Frame Air filter" from the surface it rests upon, so that air freely enters from underneath. There's many solutions for this, so here is one. A strip of wood trim to fasten only to "2" opposite sides of the frame, and the wood strip wide enough to extend below the frame raising it up at least an inch from the surface it rests upon, so that air will enter from the other 2 sides and pass up through the filter and then into the laptop vents, in which you place on top of this whole contraption.

This should work quite well because of the large surface area of the filter opposed to the laptop air intake cooling vents.



thanks for your reply.

i would have liked a photo of the filter your explaining... hehe 🙂

i took apart the computer, used a can of compressed air to clean the fans & heatsink.. but wasnt satisifed.. so i used my vaccuum.. but still wasnt satisifed.. so i took it outside and blew it away with the exhaust port of my shop vac... its like 2.5 horse power... still didnt get it 100% clean but im satisfied.

i put it back together, and taped some make shift filter to the intake ports.

i tried coffee filter, sponge, panty hose.. and fabric softener as filters.

dne0gen
Level 7
You haven't stated what actually made you think about using air filters. I would assume you think that by using filters, less dust will go into your laptop, but that is not 100% true. While it MAY stop some dust from going in it, there will still be dust in it and there isn't really anything you can do.Dust doesn't enter only from the vents, even if it is the primary spot it does.
As long as you keep (at least) the place where you put your laptop clean, and by clean I mean just wipe off the dust once a week, you are good.
Don't get obsessed by the fact that your laptop can take too much dust because there isn't much to do here.
Cleaning your air vents once a week or so with compressed air is more than enough to keep it dust free in the spots that matter for it to work properly.

dne0gen wrote:
You haven't stated what actually made you think about using air filters. I would assume you think that by using filters, less dust will go into your laptop, but that is not 100% true. While it MAY stop some dust from going in it, there will still be dust in it and there isn't really anything you can do.Dust doesn't enter only from the vents, even if it is the primary spot it does.
As long as you keep (at least) the place where you put your laptop clean, and by clean I mean just wipe off the dust once a week, you are good.
Don't get obsessed by the fact that your laptop can take too much dust because there isn't much to do here.
Cleaning your air vents once a week or so with compressed air is more than enough to keep it dust free in the spots that matter for it to work properly.



i realize dust gets sucked into the laptop from every direction.
after opening up the laptop, i saw a thin blanket of dust covering everything
but it was not that bad.

im not getting obsessed, but i did spend far more then i wanted to on this laptop.
i just want to make sure it lasts. so any other suggestions on how i can keep my baby ticking, lemme know.

Jaitsu
Level 7
I wouldn't try to add a filter, no. As others have said, adding any kind of filter reduces the amount of airflow - which is the same effect that collecting dust would have. Generally speaking, unless you're in a VERY dirty environment, dust isn't harming the computer in any way other than blocking the exhaust vents, and in my experience, the design of the G750 series (drawing air from the bottom) is pretty effective in reducing the amount of dust. I've taken mine apart a few times after a year of heavy use, and there was hardly any dust to speak of inside mine, without having done any modifications.